[Map] Kumzar (2km) [WIP]

[Scot]

Keep it up mate, this map looks very very good

[badmojo420]

My map has been neglected for the last few weeks. Ever since BF1943 hit actually. Between playing that and PR, i've had very little time to spare on mapping. But, I'm determined to change that. To motivate me more, i will try and post a new screen shot every week, of something new in my map. Hopefully, this way i won't spend any more time moving around stuff i've already looked at for hours, and I'll get to adding in the rest of the core objects. And sculpting those darn mountains. I want to wrap this map up sooner rather than later, because i want to get started on my next map. (it's actually the old map i started, but i'll most likely scrap it all and start fresh after learning so much from making this one.)

So for this weeks screen shot.....



Great, a ship, big deal right? Let me explain. I always enjoy the outpost battles on Korengal Valley, so i wanted to include something similar in my map. Instantly i wanted to make the mosque a control point, but thats neither realistic or doing anything, since the mosque will be a center point of the map anyway. Then i started watching that new Ross Kemp pirate documentary, and got a great idea.

So, I was thinking the "Terrorists" could start the game in possession of the cargo ship. Giving them a temp spawn point and maybe a crate to request kits off. The ship for the terrorists has no real value. But defending it would slow down and wear down the coalition. Similar to how it is in Korengal. But, for the coalition, controlling the ship would be a huge advantage. As it would cause some of their assets to spawn. I've yet to decide which assets will be controlled by the ship flag. But my first idea is the two APCs, first so they can't use them to blast everything on the ship, and secondly to give the opfor a chance to properly IED/mine any roads at the start of the match. I am also considering making it the helicopter, maybe both the heli and apcs. I dunno yet.

Defending a ship that cannot be entered would be a little silly. So in order to make the battles interesting I've placed the crates in such a way to create some tunnels through them. If you'll notice the white crate in the bottom row at the front of the ship. That is the only (non-rope) way of entering the crates. And it's a long straight 'hallway' so it should be easy to defend. You can access the whole crate pile, and get out almost everywhere, it's hard to explain, but there is a lot of places to hide a rally or even build a hideout. Of course if the enemy is on the ship, they'll most likely overrun both, it gives the opfor a place to build/place these spawnpoints out of sight, to prevent coalition sitting on their main and sending HAT rockets at anything they build.

Comments/opinions/insults/words of encouragement? All are welcome.

[Maxfragg]

awesome, sounds like some nice cqb might happen there

[badmojo420]

New screen shot for this week.

Mountain top farm. I had to move it over a few hundred meters since it was right on the edge of my google earth photo. So it's not exactly where it is in real life, but close enough.

Still a work in progress, but the majority is there. (Ignore the two bushes in the middle of the field)





Ref photos:
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/2656/8371915.jpg
http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/5649/kum ... 200722.jpg

edit: added another screen, looks like i'll have to do something about those metal roof pieces disappearing.

[HughJass]

all that cliff texture is looking quite awkward. Need some better texture work.

while on that the cliffs should be a little less steep... basically work all that around.

Follow the ref pics a bit more. However you are getting there. good work

[badmojo420]

all that cliff texture is looking quite awkward. Need some better texture work.

Here it is with low details(no terrain fix) i tweaked the textures for no fix since i'm not sure if the fix can be used multiplayer.

http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6812/farm5.jpg

while on that the cliffs should be a little less steep... basically work all that around.

Follow the ref pics a bit more. However you are getting there. good work

I know i know, most of my cliffs in the whole 2kms need work. I spent all of 10min ruffing up the hills for that area. So they will look a lot different in the end.

There's only so much staring at bumpy shadowless 3d terrain a person can take. I wish i was making a rolling hills desert map. But, I'm trying to not stress out about the terrain shaping for now, and do it at my leisure, which is kind of why i wanted to post a screen shot of a new area every week. This way i can get the map finished and playable, and then work on making the mountains look better.

Nevertheless thank you for your comments. It gives me encouragement to poor countless more hours into bumping leveling smoothing & ramping the shit outta my terrain. At least i know someone will notice.

[fuzzhead]

good work so far but area that you posted above is basically a stadium killing floor, no advantage to going in middle, since all sides are high ground leaving middle totally exposed..

its fine but just keep that mind when designing rest of level.

also i agree with hughjass the ref pic looks alot different, its alot more spread out, yours looks a bit too unnatural at the moment the cliffs just kind of pop out of nowhere instead of a gradual incline. also i think too tall, cutting them in half would probably look better and reduce the extreme "kill stadium" effect, which basically makes all effort you put into the middle worthless since in a tactical sense it would be suicide to go inside the valley.

[badmojo420]

It's indeed a killing floor. But i do intend to make the hills around it at least bumpy so you can't just park an APC or humvee up there and rain down death. I'd like it to be the opfor on foot paths, who sit up there with AT weapons or long range rifles and ambush the coalition when they try to look around the farm for a cache.

I know all about the terrain needing work.

Here's a sample of what it should look like after I'm done working the terrain.
http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2503/farm6.jpg

[fuzzhead]

ya looks much better, good work so far!!

[Peeta]

Nice work! I jizzed....oh forget that, thats old! ops:

I really don't like the fact that there are APC's on this map...

[badmojo420]

Made a new video

I really don't like the fact that there are APC's on this map...

Fear not the apcs will not have access to all of the map. I'm hoping they will take an armored transport role in the bay, occasionally taking squads up into the mountains to the farm. With 1 helicopter, 2 boats, 1 humvee, and 1 log truck, IMO the two APCs are the logical choice for a transport squad. Although i'm not sure if the pub game community is ready to take that leap. But i'm hoping. Maybe if i force them even more, say -1 boat and make it an attack huey? lol i dunno. Please suggest a better asset layout if you have something in mind. I'm open to anything as far as assets.

Oh and check out my "super cool" local boat in the video If only it wasn't "fake"

[Wilkinson]

Neat-o. interesting Boat you coded.

[fuzzhead]

5:00 - along the shore, should give some rocks or some bit of cover as its completely exposed and suicide for anyone taking that path on foot or in vehicle.

6:00 - mosque looks really out of place, I can understand if just a placeholder but dont seem to fit the style of the rest of the village.

6:45 - love the interior and all the detailing work with the furniture, but I imagine light maps will be abitch for all those

7:30 - I know rhino wont like it, but I think the road looks quite good, I like it very rocky/rough road


Asset list: Said this before many times, but dont worry about the assets until the map is in its final stages. Create your environment using RL references and make things as realistic as possible (terrain, static placment, etc). Then make the asset list at the end to fit the terrain. And remember that asset list can change at last minute so dont get too worked up about it....

[driver-ch-driver]

looks like an interesting map

[Durkie]

looks nice
you have really done something special with the ship

[McBumLuv]

At 6:54, I'd suggest moving the chair a bit. Because we can't move it ingame, though it would be cool if it were rocked up to the door handle as if it were keeping the door open.

At 7:30, I like the rocks, but the rocks should be more to the side, with little to none in the center, and as it gets closer to the edges a higher proliferation of rocks. If only because it's a well trodden path, whether by vehicle or even just on foot, there would be that many big rocks in the dead center of it.

At 9:40, that building looks quite out of place for this village imo.

Agreed with Fuzzhead about the mosque, at the very least the big Muttrah one.

Though, it look slike it's coming along quite well, I love the drivable boats, hope to get a few players with RPGs on them to go pirate the ship

[badmojo420]

I'll replay to everything when i have more time. Thanks for all the comments guys. Just wanted to quickly say that the muttrah mosque is almost a perfect match when you look at the reference photos...

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/1646/1345800.jpg

The bf2 mosque is just a place holder for now, since i didn't want to add in 2 of the same mosques.

[badmojo420]

5:00 - along the shore, should give some rocks or some bit of cover as its completely exposed and suicide for anyone taking that path on foot or in vehicle.

I'm going to redo that road section along the shoreline. In real life it's pretty empty as far as cover goes. But i think i'll try to add in a lot of places where you can move against the cliff wall for cover like this...



If you have any other suggestions for ways to add cover i'd love to hear them. Of course i'll add in a few push carts or detail objects, but it's a long road and i don't want a donkey cart every 20m.

6:00 - mosque looks really out of place, I can understand if just a placeholder but dont seem to fit the style of the rest of the village.

I find it looks out of place because of the color of the other buildings, which in real life are mostly white like the muttrah mosque. Can the bf2 statics be re-skinned? If so i might just have to do that.

6:45 - love the interior and all the detailing work with the furniture, but I imagine light maps will be abitch for all those

I'm not familiar with the light map system, what would the problem be? Shadows on objects indoors? I'll hold of on adding more detail if this will be a problem.

7:30 - I know rhino wont like it, but I think the road looks quite good, I like it very rocky/rough road

Thanks, i tried to make it close to the ref image.
http://dolphintour.net/gallery/GO5S0061.JPG

Asset list: Said this before many times, but dont worry about the assets until the map is in its final stages. Create your environment using RL references and make things as realistic as possible (terrain, static placment, etc). Then make the asset list at the end to fit the terrain. And remember that asset list can change at last minute so dont get too worked up about it....

Yeah, i'm not really sweating the assets at this point. And who knows what we'll have in game when i'm finally finished the map. But, i still like to hear peoples opinions about what assets they think should go in it. It gives me plenty of time to think over their suggestions.

[badmojo420]

At 6:54, I'd suggest moving the chair a bit. Because we can't move it ingame, though it would be cool if it were rocked up to the door handle as if it were keeping the door open.

(jedi mind control)You saw nothing(/jedi mind control)

Good idea with the chair holding the door open. I'll use that

At 7:30, I like the rocks, but the rocks should be more to the side, with little to none in the center, and as it gets closer to the edges a higher proliferation of rocks. If only because it's a well trodden path, whether by vehicle or even just on foot, there would be that many big rocks in the dead center of it.

Good point, I'll add in another layer of undergrowth for small rocks to put in the middle.

At 9:40, that building looks quite out of place for this village imo.

Is that the trailer type thing? I tried to use that sparingly, but i might have to remove it, i agree it does look out of place there. I'll most likely just build another building with the Afghan statics that is the same dimensions and swap it out.

Though, it look slike it's coming along quite well, I love the drivable boats, hope to get a few players with RPGs on them to go pirate the ship

Yeah for something that took me less than 5mins to put together i really like driving around in that boat. I tried to find a tutorial about creating a vehicle the proper way, but with no success. Ofc the BF2editor forums were down so i'll have to give it another shot later on. If anyone knows of a good tutorial please let me know.

The boat in the video is just a regular old vbf2 rhib with that Dhow static put over top of it. You can even see the mount for the machine gun sticking out of the weapons cache. but it's fun to use for editing.

[Durkie]

for the road maybe you should put in a alternative route for infantry a small trail through the mountains or a small tunnel or something so they have the choice to use the faster road without cover or the slower way up the mountains or through the tunnel.

for assets please have the heli at the start for that COD 4 feeling of dropping on the ship. and maybe let the humvee out so all the transport have to be done with the heli or the lav's. And I should let the lav's spawn after the ship is captured